


Red Snow

by paranoid_fridge



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: M/M, and emoting, and everybody trying desperately to save one another, it's rather more action, read this as pre-slash or slash, with a little angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-28
Updated: 2015-12-28
Packaged: 2018-05-10 02:09:11
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,794
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5564965
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/paranoid_fridge/pseuds/paranoid_fridge
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's pure chance that has Poe Dameron glance down to the planet after the mission is completed and spies a black-clad form stalking after his friends. But at that point he knows what he has to do.</p><p>Or: what if Poe had been there when Kylo Ren had gone after Rey and Finn?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Red Snow

Snow crunches under his boots, branches slap his face, and his lungs burn with every gulp of freezing air he takes. Poe Dameron pivots around another leafless, skeletal tree, his feet slipping on the uneven ground underneath the treacherous white blanket, and he stumbles as he catches sight of a red glow between the trees ahead.

No, he thinks desperately, please no. Don’t let him be too late.

His joy at destroying the generator had lasted all but seconds. Until he’d caught sight of Kylo Ren’s black-clad figure stalking away from the exploding structure. A sharp contrast against the white ground, and Poe hadn’t thought anything of it, until he’d realized the drawn red lightsaber was meant for two retreating figures, struggling to get away on foot.

Two familiar figures.

Poe had left his X-wing fighter at the next available spot, ignoring the yelling over the comm. Where’re Han Solo and Chewbacca, why are Rey and Finn on their own? He’d undone his safety belts as fast as possible, hands shaking with anxiety because all this cost him precious, precious time.

“I’m going after Rey and Finn,” he’d said, before he’d dropped from the cockpit and started running.

Poe grinds his teeth, ignores his aching lungs and legs and forces himself to run faster, because now he can hear the fight. The electrical hum of a lightsaber, footsteps, groaning trees – not shouting, and that might be a good thing, but terrifying dread spreads through Poe’s chest. What if he’s too late, what if Kylo Ren already won, what if -

He bursts onto the clearing just in time to see Kylo Ren force Finn back against a tree. Finn pants hard, a trickle of blood dripping down from a cut on his forehead to stain the collar of his jacket, and the glow of Kylo Ren’s lightsaber casts his face in eerie red. No trace of Rey anywhere, and Poe reaches for his phaser despite knowing how useless the weapon is against Kylo Ren.

Finn’s eyes widen.

“Poe!”

Momentary hope crosses his features. Only to be whisked away as Kylo Ren uses this moment of distraction to get underneath Finn’s guard, lift him off his feet and throw him into the air. All while Poe is forced to watch, utterly helpless.

“Finn!” he cries, reaching out, just when Finn hits another tree, head first, and falls to the ground like a limp puppet. He doesn’t stir, doesn’t move, and Poe’s blood freezes. He hurries over, panic blinding him, though he knows Kylo Ren is still there, and he will likely finish what he started, and he doesn’t know what happened to Rey and weren’t they supposed to be winning? Why is it all going so wrong, why is he once again alone with the Sith, when he knows he is helpless?

For a split second his mind flashes back. The flames devouring the village, the Stormtroopers doing the rest, and no, he tells himself as he drops down next to Finn’s unmoving body, he can’t think about that now.

Don’t let him be dead, please, don’t.

“Finn, Finn!” Poe mutters, hands hovering a hair’s breadth above Finn’s chest, afraid to touch, to possibly make things worse. He almost doesn’t notice the shallow breath fogging the air just over Finn’s mouth, and when he sees it, relief hits him hard enough to slump over, set a shaky hand down on Finn’s shoulder.

“I’ll make this alright,” Poe murmurs, hand ghosting over skin he is glad is still warm; “I’ll get us out.” Behind him, snow crunches, and Poe hopes feverishly that he will be able to fulfill his vow.

His phaser won’t be of use to him here. But just next to Finn’s hand lies the lightsaber he fought with. Poe reaches out, brushes his fingers over Finn’s, takes a deep breath. If he plays this right, he may at least have a shot at this.

Before the planet collapses and pulls them all to their fiery doom.

Poe slowly rises to his feet.

Kylo Ren has stopped in the middle of the clearing. Snowflakes cover the shoulders of his black coat, his hair, and Poe finds he looks very different without his helmet. A distant explosion echoes past them and the ground under their feet trembles.

“You have no chance,” Kylo Ren begins, “You know that. Better give up now, and I will allow you to –“

Poe doesn’t allow him to complete that sentence. He raises his phaser, fires, and while Kylo Ren flings out a hand to stop the attack, Poe is already sprinting, dodging around the frozen laser beam and throws himself at Kylo Ren with Finn’s lightsaber aglow.

Kylo Ren manages to block the stroke at the very last second. Blue glow lights up his face, shows the surprise in his eyes. Kylo Ren loses his hold on the phaser beam, and the beam flashes forward, brushing past his hip and melting the black cloth there. With their faces so close, Poe can see Kylo Ren’s face twist in pain, hear his breath falter, and he uses that split second to duck and go for a strike from below.

Kylo Ren stumbles backward, managing to just pull himself out of reach, and Poe follows him, strike after strike, not allowing him to gather himself, even as his own arms begin to shake with fatigue and his muscles cry for a rest.

Then his foot catches on a root somewhere underneath the snow and he stumbles. It delays him by a second, but it’s enough for Kylo Ren to get away and reach out with the Force.

Poe freezes. Against his will, he is frozen to the spot, can barely expand his ribcage enough to get air, and he’s been here before. His heart races, and his mind calls him fool, fool, because he should have anticipated this. He’s faced Kylo Ren already, knows what the Force can do –

But his feet can’t move, his hands won’t budge and he can’t even turn his head to watch Kylo Ren approach.

“This is familiar,” Kylo Ren states, though he’s breathing heavily and his body steams with drying sweat, “Best pilot of the Resistance, wasn’t it?”

He smirks, though it’s more of a grimace. Poe wants to shout at him, call him obsessive and demented, but he can’t even move his lips enough to form words, and the invisible grip on him shudders and tightens. It feels as unstable as Kylo Ren’s gait as he draws closer.

“I had questions,” Kylo Ren continues to gloat, “Questions I didn’t get to hear the answers to, because one of our own defected. But he paid for that, don’t you think?”

He kicks snow toward Finn’s fallen body, and anger rushes through Poe’s veins, hot and bright, and just for a split second Kylo Ren’s grip slips enough to allow Poe to twist his wrist. His bright blue lightsaber slices past Kylo Ren’s shoulder, the Sith staggers back with a yell, clutching his shoulder. And the grip then impossibly tightens.

Poe feels his lungs constrict.

“You’ll pay,” Kylo Ren hisses, regaining his balance, “You’ll pay for this and for everything.” A loud explosion fills the air, swallows his words, and Poe spies a huge fiery cloud rise up over the trees. Closer now, far too close. The planet has started destabilizing and they should’ve been off it ages ago.

“I’ll get every scrap of information that has ever entered you mind,” Kylo Ren vows, stepping into Poe’s breathing space. He can’t breathe anyway; his vision is starting to flicker, and his mind is screaming at him to fight, struggle -

“I will know every thought you ever had, every memory and every emotion. There will be nothing in you that I don’t know,” Kylo Ren hisses, his eyes shining with blank fury, “And once I’ve taken everything, I will make you watch me destroy your world and everything and only then I will kill you!”

You won’t, you won’t, you won’t, Poe wants to scream, but his pulse has begun to slow, energy draining away as his vision tunnels and darkens.

“And will you be crying every step along the way, too?” another voice cuts in, and Rey amazingly appears on the other side of the clearing, breathing hard. She looks rather worse for wear, with tears in her garments and bruises on her face, but her eyes sparkle with determination.

Kylo Ren’s features twist, and there’s no helmet in the way to hide the spark of unease in his eyes from even Poe’s wavering vision.

“You were the one who ran away,” Kylo Ren returns, and then, in an almost negligent gesture, drives his lightsaber deep into the tissue of Poe’s upper leg. Smoke and sizzling fill the air, pain floods Poe’s mind, and when he comes to again, he’s lying in the snow. The fluffy white is soothing against the burning agony emanating from his leg, something wet and hot trickles down from it and his stomach twists.

He tries to move, but his vision whites out, leaving him panting in the snow.

“Come with me!” Kylo Ren shouts, and now Poe picks up the sounds of a fight; the crunching snow, heavy footsteps and the constant hum of the lightsabers. Somehow Rey got ahold of the blue one, and she’s matching Kylo Ren, making up with determination for what she lacks in experience.

“I can show you what the Force is truly like!” Kylo yells, blocking two strikes in fast succession, “My Master can teach you to use it!”

“Use it to become a murderer?” Rey shouts back, ducking Kylo Ren’s half-hearted strike and pushing forward “Use it to slay my family the way you did? Use it to maim and massacre?” Fury makes her advance, push back the Sith, and to Poe’s uneven vision, she seems to be winning.

Another fireball lights up the dark sky, and this time Poe can feel the warmth from it. His gaze swivels past Finn’s unconscious body. Perhaps he can drag both of them back to his ship – utterly unlikely he knows, but he won’t die without at least trying.

So despite the agony searing through his veins, Poe begins to drag himself forward. The snow melts under his fingers, numbing them, soaking through his clothes until his body shakes from exertion and the cold. He’s barely aware of the continuing fight; it’s all blending together into a background cacophony of explosions, crumbling earth, pants and grunts and breaking twigs.

He hopes Rey will finish what Finn and he failed to do. Maybe the three of them together are enough to take down one Sith.

“Poe?”

He looks up to find Finn looking at him, eyes barely open, and the snow underneath his head red from blood, but he’s conscious, and Poe crawls until he can crouch next to Finn. Shield him from the chaos – the heat of another explosion.

Most likely his X-wing fighter has already been swallowed by the flames.

“You’re hurt,” Finn mumbles, his forehead creasing. Poe glances over his shoulder – crawling the way from where he fell to Finn has left a bright red track in the snow. It’s more blood than he thought, and he looks away before the dizziness catches up with him.

“Just a small wound,” he lies to Finn, “Nothing to worry about. What about you? Are you alright?”

Finn takes a shaky breath. “My back… hurts.”

No, Poe thinks, please no. Back on the planet they have ample resources to treat complicated spine injuries, but they’re in the middle of a wood on a collapsing planet, and Rey’s losing ground against a fury-driven Sith.

Poe blindly reaches out to grasp Finn’s hand. His own fingers are too numb, barely even bend, and if Finn returns the grip, he can’t feel it. White tingles race down his leg, and maybe, Poe admits to himself, maybe his own injury is a little worse than he thought, maybe the nausea and blurred vision won’t just be slept off, but the world around them collapses anyway.

“Can you… feel your toes?” he asks Finn.

Finn gives him a shaky smile. “I’m… not sure? It’s cold…”

“It is,” Poe returns and sees Finn’s leg twitch. And perhaps it’s premature to assume his spine isn’t injured, but they’re about to die anyway, and Poe’s never been good on his own, so he gathers Finn in his arms and pulls him onto his lap as gently as he can.

Finn still groans in pain, but his fingers clutch at Poe’s jacket for purchase, and if this leaves them as two grown men cowering behind a young girl from a Sith, then that’s alright, too, because Rey is special, and they’re barely holding on.

“Poe…” Finn gasps out, “If we … if we …”

“Shush,” Poe returns, just as Rey stumbles. She manages to twist away from Kylo Ren’s lightsaber, but the ground creaks and shakes, and the trees grow thinner. The red shine of fire begins to light the clearing, and time is running out.

“I just … wanted you to know …”

“Me, too,” Poe interrupts him, and tightens his arms around Finn. Because they should’ve had more time, should’ve had a peaceful interlude to actually grow closer. Find out what it is fizzling in the air between them, pulling them toward each other.

Then the trees on the far side of their clearing shake and twist, the ground crumbles away with a deafening roar. “Rey!” Finn and Poe scream simultaneously, and she just makes the jump, leaving Kylo Ren on the other side. Fire spreads underground, and the first tree start to catch, snowmelt soaks into Poe’s pants, his leg numbs, but he can feel the heat on his face.

Time’s up.

And just when he thinks that, when Rey has stumbled toward them, bloodied and bruised, and Kylo Ren glares at them from the other side of the still deepening chasm, the almost inaudible whirr of a large spaceship and a large shadow covering them all announces the arrival of the Millennium Falcon.

They’re saved, Poe thinks and passes out.

***

Later, when they’re aboard the Falcon flying back to base and their wounds have been bandaged, Poe finds himself seated at Finn’s bedside. Rey lies asleep in another bunk, and Chewie has made it clear he’d like the cockpit to himself.

Poe still can’t quite believe Han Solo is dead. Had he known, he might have urged Chewie to fire at Kylo Ren after the Falcon picked them up. Despite knowing that Leia would not want them to.

Chewie likely would not have fired at him anyway.

Poe shakes his head, attempting to dispel the tangled knot of emotions filling his chest. They destroyed the weapon and rescued Rey – not everything was a failure. Though sitting at Finn’s bedside and listening to every breath, knowing how close he came to losing him, makes him feel as if he barely escaped a catastrophy.

Hitting the tree injured Finn’s spine, and Poe concentrates on not thinking on the potential damage his impulsive actions might have caused. Pulling Finn onto his lap –

“What are you thinking about?” Finn asks sleepily, turning his head as far as the medical equipment will allow. BB-8 spent a good ten minutes beeping angrily at them, and Poe has to admit the small droid was right.

He shrugs. “Things.”

Finn snorts, blinks. The meds should have him out again soon. “Hmm, things went pear-shaped, I guess.”

Poe can only nod; his throat too dry to answer.

“I thought we were done for, me and Rey,” Finn mumbles. “Then you showed up. Believe me, I’ve never been so glad to see anyone in my life.”

“He’d have gotten me if Rey hadn’t come back,” Poe admits.

“She’s awesome, isn’t she?”

“She is.”

“Why aren’t you resting, too?” Finn shifts on his cot, and his fingers brush past Poe’s. Warmth floods through him as their fingers tangle, and he forces himself to sit still, even as Finn doesn’t retract his hand. He probably doesn’t notice, Poe tells himself. The pain medication tends to do that, after all.

“I guess I’ve been thinking about things,” Poe replies, a beat too late.

Finn makes a sleepy noise. The meds are beginning to pull him under again, but his fingers also curl around Poe’s hand.

“I find …” Finn mumbles. “People… touching… they stop me from thinking. Maybe you should…”

He trails off, asleep. Poe looks to their linked hands, a small, disbelieving smile crossing his face, and a sense of wonder blossoming in his chest. The day was terrible; those last weeks have been nearly disastrous.

But maybe there is a chance of something beautiful coming out of this disaster.

  _Fin_

**Author's Note:**

> Soooo, [Adee](www.french-unicorn.tumblr.com) sent me the idea. I did a drabble, she drew something, I turned it into a fic and there will be art soon. Just keep an eye on [her](www.french-unicorn.tumblr.com) or [my](www.paranoidfridge.tumblr.com) tumblr. XD


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